The present invention relates to evaporative cooling systems for poultry houses and the like, and in particular to an improved reservoir, header and pad retainer arrangement therefor.
Evaporative cooling systems for agricultural and horticultural applications, such as poultry houses, and other similar buildings, are well known in the art, and serve to maintain the desired temperature, humidity and other similar environmental variables within the interior of the building to facilitate efficient production.
Evaporative coolers, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,971,370 and 6,079,365, flow cooling water vertically through a plurality of evaporative cooling pads, and flow ambient air horizontally through the wetted pads to evaporate a portion of the cooling water in the pads, thereby lowering the temperature of the ambient air, and subsequently flow the cooled ambient air into the interior of the building to achieve the desired temperature and humidity. While such evaporative coolers have been generally successful, certain drawbacks have been experienced.
One problem encountered with some prior art evaporative coolers is when cooling water is drawn completely through the pads into the interior of building, thereby causing damage to adjacent equipment and/or the building structure. While adequate cooling water flow through the pads is important to maximize cooling efficiency, it is equally important to prevent water droplets from being emitted from the downstream faces of the pads.
Another drawback associated with at least some prior art evaporative coolers is that they are relatively expensive to manufacture and install, and are not readily adaptable for a wide variety of different applications. While evaporative cooling pads are provided in different sizes and thicknesses to accommodate various applications, the associated reservoir header and pad retainer mechanisms are typically unique to a specific pad configuration. Hence, most prior art evaporative coolers cannot be readily adapted to accept pads of different sizes and/or thicknesses depending upon the specific needs of a particular customer and/or application.